1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to task automation within physical environments and more particular to a method and apparatus for sensing object load engagement, transportation and disengagement by automated vehicles.
2. Description of the Related Art
Entities regularly operate numerous manufacturing and storage facilities in order to meet supply and/or demand goals. For example, small to large corporations, government organizations and/or the like employ a variety of logistics management and inventory management paradigms to move objects (e.g., raw materials, goods, machines and/or the like) into a variety of physical environments (e.g., warehouses, cold rooms, factories, plants, stores and/or the like). A multinational company may build warehouses in one country to store raw materials for manufacture into goods, which are housed in a warehouse in another country for distribution into local retail markets. The warehouses must be well-organized in order to maintain and/or improve production and sales. If raw materials are not transported to the factory at an optimal rate, fewer goods are manufactured. As a result, revenue is not generated for the unmanufactured goods to counterbalance the costs of the raw materials.
Unfortunately, physical environments, such as warehouses, have several limitations that prevent timely completion of various tasks. These tasks include object handling tasks, such as moving pallets of goods to different locations in a timely manner within a warehouse. For example, to facilitate object handling, most warehouses employ a large number of forklift drivers and forklifts to move objects. In order to increase productivity, these warehouses simply add more forklifts and forklift drivers. However, the additional employees and equipment create an inelastic additional cost, i.e., once hired, the additional employees and equipment cannot be removed.
Some warehouses utilize equipment for performing these tasks in order to increase productivity and reduce human intervention. As an example, these warehouses may employ vehicles, such as automated forklifts, to lift and carry object loads on routes (e.g., pre-programmed paths). During normal manual operation, a human operator would ascertain an orientation or pose of a particular object, such as a pallet or a rack system. Then, the human operator would direct two or more forks into an orientation matching the object load orientation. In this manner, the forks would be optimally positioned to engage a pallet at the entry points and/or unload the pallet onto a destination, such as a rack system shelf. Human operators, however, often make mistakes or cannot correctly ascertain the object load orientation.
Currently, the automated forklifts and human operators cannot accurately determine object load orientation, especially, when the object load is stored at a raised position. For example, if several object loads are stacked on top of each other or in high racking, a conventional automated forklift or human operator cannot ascertain the object pose above a certain load height. In many cases, a bottom object load orientation differs from a top object load orientation. Variations throughout a warehouse floor prevent correct object orientation computation because an object, such as a pallet, has different poses when placed at various locations. A poorly constructed warehouse floor or an uneven local terrain, for instance, disrupts effective automation of warehouse tasks. In addition, when the object load is wrapped in plastic (i.e., shrink wrapped), conventional sensing technologies fail and cannot accurately determine the object load orientation
Therefore, there is a need in the art for a method and apparatus for sensing object load engagement, transportation and disengagement by automated vehicles using orientation information.